The South of England Show, Ardingly

I forget just how massive the South of England Show is!  Nik and I went along on the Friday in June to explore the stands, displays and shows and found so much to see, eat and drink, it was epic!  There is so much going on with plenty to entertain little ones and grown ups alike. We happened to be there "on duty" without the kids in order to take photos and make notes but we kept seeing things the twins would love and had we not already had plans to be at Woodlands family festival that weekend, we would have gone back on the Saturday with them.

My personal favourites were the blacksmith competitions, the wine walk, the motocross stunt bikers, the WI displays and of course, the shopping!  I bagged myself a bargain waterproof coat in a gorgeous bright yellow with polka dot lining, it's come in handy already with our somewhat wet June so far.

The Young Artisans tent was so inspiring with some truly gorgeous designs by such talented young people, we spotted a few from Uckfield College!  The three crowned winners ranged in age from 17 to 21.

The blacksmiths made for some awesome photo opportunities with the sparks, fire and steam against the dark backgrounds, it looks like such hard work (and it really is, I tried it once helping make a spike for St. Marks' Church gate back in 2017, see my sparky photo I took back then).

There were some beautiful flowers and brightly coloured WI made crafts in the WI/flower tent, there were lots of categories with some amazing interpretations in each craft competition, of course I was drawn to the rainbow ones ;)

The Wine Walk was informative and fun, we really enjoyed learning more about some of our local vineyards, I never knew there were so many and we've now been inspired to plan a tour of some East Sussex vineyards this summer which will make a great feature so watch this space come Autumn time!  Of course, having a few tasters of the various offerings was fun too, the English sparkling wines we have locally are truly wonderful!

Of course, there's a lot more going on with lots of agricultural areas, various farm animal competitions and displays with sheep-shearing demos and the like.  There are lots of food stands with food to eat as well as plenty to take home such as local cheeses, meats, booze and sweet treats. We bought some Sussex Charmer to take home which is a mix of mature cheddar and Parmesan so has a lovely deep, tangy flavour and is almost gone already!

Despite the rather dingy weather with a few downpours, we had a brilliant day out!

Cuckoo Trail - the ultimate bike ride

I'd never been to The Cuckoo Trail before so was really excited when we had a lovely sunny day in February and my friend suggested we meet there with the kids and bikes for the afternoon.  For those of you who don't know (hi Mum!), it's a path than runs for miles starting in Heathfield and going all the way to Eastbourne.  We obviously didn't go that far with our 4-year-olds but still had a jolly good ride along the sheltered fairly flat  path, having parked for free in the car park opposite Waitrose.  We found a small park part-way along too during one of the road crossings and stopped there for a little while on our way back to let the kids get a run about too.  Of course, it was finished off perfectly with ice-cream in the Waitrose cafe when we got back with 4 tuckered out little ones and two tiddly ones!

Oast Farm Wassail 2019

So much fun, our second year at the Oast Farm Wassail, this time it was sunny!  We loved the morris dancers again and the torchlit procession up to the orchard, the chanting, singing and draping the tree with cider soaked bread.  And of course, the apple cake and hot apple juice afterwards followed by some shopping in the farm shop.

Exploring Buxted Park

Despite living a stones throw from Buxted Park, we haven't ever managed a full walk around the country estate.  After our Sunday Roast at The Buxted Inn at the weekend, we went to explore it properly and actually try to make it down to the "duck pond" at the bottom which we knew the twins would love.

We parked by the church near the hotel and started our walk through the old gate at the back of the churchyard.

Kalyan was most distraught by all the nettles guarding the last of the brambles he could see and P loved being the gatekeeper.  We then wandered down, past all the grazing cows to reach the big pond/small lake.

Twin cows and twin dragonflies ;)

Then we found a little island with a path across and the kids liked throwing twigs in to the ducks (who soon swam off when they realised it wasn't actually food) and I may have encouraged some kissing action which resulted in some hilarious laughter photos!

They had a bit of a run around away from the cows so we didn't scare them and we slowly made our way back up with lots of rests as K was too tired apparently.

We only found a few acorns (I suspect the squirrels beat us to the majority) but we collected some colourful leaves and have yet to find any Horse Chestnut trees for conkers.  We thought we'd hit the jackpot but it turned out to be sweet chestnuts.

I had a close encounter with a cow, took a few fern photos and some autumnal scenes though and the kids cheered up once we reached the church again and there was no more hill to climb!

It was a lovely afternoon, despite the whinging coming back up the hill!

Family time exploring local places

My brother came to visit from Darlington with his partner and my nephew.  It was so nice having them to stay and of course my furry nephew too, I loved having a dog in the house!  We showed them some of our beautiful countryside with a nice walk near High Hurstwood.

Wassailing at Oast Farm Buxted

We'd never heard of wassailing before we moved here.  You'll probably already know how much we love visiting Oast Farm shop & cafe and it's there we first heard about the wassail.  Until now, it's always clashed with Nik's weekend at work or the twins' nap time but this year we made it along and we loved it!

If, like us, you haven't heard of this ceremony before, it's basically a way to bless the orchard to ensure a good harvest come autumn.

The awesome Bob in his crown, excited to get wassailing

Woodlands Festival

It's that miserable time of year, Christmas is over, there are no more parties and the weather sucks.  We're all back at work/school and I need things to look forward to!  I'm trying to plan some fun weekends and looking forward to some other exciting adventures we have coming up this year.  After discovering the ultimate fun of a family festival last year, we're booked to attend no less than three this year already!  After our first (and second and third) family festival last year, we're really excited to be discovering more this year.  

A new one for us will be Woodlands Festival which is in June at Elm Wood, near Hawkhurst in Kent.  It's still not too far away so we'll be close enough if we do need to abandon camping with the kids and come home but fingers crossed it all goes as well as the Medieval Festival last year!

This festival looks like another amazing extravaganza of family activities, colourful fun and music.  This video of last year's highlights below looks amazing and I'm in love with that rainbow bunting above!

It's that time of year again!

We had our annual family photo session with the inimitable Laura Aziz a few weeks ago (a couple of weeks after the twins' birthday again) and this time we aimed for that glorious golden hour of light.  We engineered an early nap for the twins and woke them early to make our way to Sheffield Park, TOTALLY worth it!

As always, I am utterly thrilled with our photos.  I had a mentoring session with Laura last weekend (which you'll be hearing more about soon) and we discussed my reasons for wanting to go into business as Bexphoto and I have plans to adjust my website to more clearly express those reasons but one of those reasons is this feeling, when we receive our photos and I have Laura to thank for that.  As always, I've struggled massively to narrow down my favourites for a blog post.  And will have the same issue when it comes to printing, need more frames.  And more walls.

Yet again, she's captured our every day, just our walk around Sheffield Park and yet, it is magical.  The light, the expressions, she's not only recorded this moment in time for us but she's made beautiful art of our afternoon.  All of it, Priya's cheeky looks and self-conscious tongue-sticking-out pose, Kalyan's "map reading", the tears when they fall over, the giggles, the joy and most of all - our love.

For any concerned readers, this is not how Priya travelled, I sorted her out properly when I got in the car ;)

Little Bird by Jools Christmas jumper twinning at Ashdown Forest

We went to Ashdown Forest this morning for a walk in the lovely sunshine and to take a few photos for a project with Coastal Kids Magazine's Christmas issue.  Here are a few of my favourite photos and look out for my Christmas Jumper round ups soon!  (Kiddie and grown up versions!)

Norman's Pond - Local places, hidden gem review

We first heard about Norman's pond from a friend and were then reminded of it at Maresfield Village Fete where they were promoting it's existence.  Last weekend we finally made it along for a walk and it's a great hidden gem!  Had I not been told about it I'd never have known it was there.  It's near the recycling centre by the Maresfield Bypass hidden away amongst the trees.

Elderflower Fields family festival - review by Bex

I cannot be more excited to tell you about Elderflower Fields family festival!  This blog post has taken me many hours to put together because of the sheer awesomeness of the event and the number of photos I just had to share to show you all how pretty and fun and exciting and varied and colourful it was!  I mean we really, really loved it!  We were so lucky with the weather, it was

Wild Garlic Pesto - Recipe by Bex

I already gave my tips for foraging for wild garlic and shared a few photos of the fun morning we had collecting leaves to make pesto but here is the recipe.  It was delicious served simply by stirring through spaghetti - the twins LOVED it and both asked for more which is pretty unusual as they normally just ask for fruit after dinner!

Foraging for Wild Garlic amongst the Bluebells - Foodie Fun by Bex

Last weekend we finally made it along to a bluebell wood with the twins for me to try to take a few photos of them having fun wondering amongst the flowers and trees.  We were unlucky with the light as it was a very dull day so the photos are a bit flat but we had a lovely morning and the woods looked stunning with the carpet of blue going on for as far as we could see!  The photos definitely do not do it justice!  Thank you to Zoe for her directions to this wood as well as a few foraging tips which I've included in with the tips below.

Wilderness Woods - Fun Days Out - Review by Bex

We had a brilliant morning playing at Wilderness Wood in Hadlow Down yesterday.  As well as being a beautiful, family owned and run woodland, there is lots to do including organised activities and adventure playgrounds and a cafe selling delicious homemade cakes and other food.

Caramel Cake

For the twins, the playground by the cafe was the best bit with a mud kitchen, pirate decks and a tyre swing (which they're still a bit young for but Priya did a great job of holding on!)  There are picnic tables outside, beautifully decorated with wild posies and there's an outdoor kitchen with wood fired pizza oven.

Kalyan wanted to push Priya on the tyre but didn't quite get the concept of it swinging back towards him!

After a play next to the cafe, it was time to head off and explore.  We found muddy puddles, a wigwam, logs (which K tried to lift before giving up and trying a piece of bark), lots of trees and birds.

 The adventure playground area was quite small with just a zip line and a slide but we all had fun!

And then we set off on another trail through the Christmas Tree field and down, finding bugs, brambles, butterflies and sticks along the way...

Before heading back up to the cafe for cake!

Mum and I had the caramel cake and Nik, Dad and the twins all had the orange cake.  Both were moist and delicious and extremely generous slices.  For 5 pieces of cake and 4 coffees it cost £23.  For entry to the woods you just "pay what you feel" to help maintain the area.

Afterwards, Nik had to go to work so he and Dad left and Mum and I took the twins for another little walk in search of the fairy garden we heard about.  We never found it (the map could be better!) but enjoyed another trail exploring through the woods.

It was a great morning out and we will definitely be returning!  We could easily spend a whole day there if the twins didn't get tired and need a nap.  I'd like to go for lunch next time and sample some more of their yummy food!

They run lots of workshops and activities for older children too with lots going on in the holidays and monthly BBQs.  You can also camp there or just hire a space for a BBQ yourself.  They do weddings and have a Yurt with fire pits and there's also a Forest School for little ones (age 2.5+).

See the Wilderness Woods website for more details and check out the Wilderness Cafe website for their menu and info too.